In Conversation
This extraordinary event, recorded in Santa Fe right after Roy’s “Globalization & Terrorism” lecture, brings together for the first time, America’s great radical historian with one of India’s and the world’s most brilliant writers and social critics. Zinn interviews Roy on a variety of topics ranging from her battle with the Supreme Court of India which accused her of “corrupting public morality,” to the rise of Hindu-based fascism. Roy turns her penetrating gaze on the U.S. and warns that, “Thanks to the ‘free press’, Americans don’t know what is happening around the world.” She says, “People are going to have to blow holes through the corporate media.” Roy extols the virtue of literature as “the opposite of the nuclear bomb.” Her unvarnished honesty, sense of humor and political acuity combined with poetic gifts of expression make Roy a special voice we all need to hear.
Speakers
Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy is a world-renowned award-winning writer and global justice activist. Tariq Ali says of her she “is both loathed and feared by the Indian elite. Loathed because she speaks her mind. Feared because her voice reaches the world outside India and damages the myths perpetrated by New Delhi.” Among her many books are My Seditious Heart and Azadi. Her latest book is The Architecture of Modern Empire.
Howard Zinn
HOWARD ZINN CENTENARY 1922-2022
Howard Zinn, professor emeritus at Boston University, was perhaps this country’s premier radical historian. He was born in Brooklyn in 1922. His parents, poor immigrants, were constantly moving to stay, as he once told me, “one step ahead of the landlord.” After high school, he went to work in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. During World War II, he saw combat duty as an air force bombardier. After the war, he went to Columbia University on the GI Bill. He taught at Spelman, the all-Black women’s college in Atlanta. He was an active figure in the civil rights movement and served on the board of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was fired by Spelman for his activism. He was among the first to oppose U.S. aggression in Indochina. His book Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal was an instant classic. A principled opponent of imperialism and militarism, he was an advocate of non-violent civil disobedience. He spoke and marched against the U.S. wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. His masterpiece, A People’s History of the United States, continues to sell in huge numbers. Among his many other books are You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian and Original Zinn with David Barsamian. Shortly before his death he completed his last great project, the documentary The People Speak. Always ready to lend a hand, he believed in and practiced solidarity. Witty, erudite, generous and loved by many the world over, Howard Zinn, friend and teacher, passed away on January 27, 2010. He would say, Don’t mourn. Get active. The struggle for peace and justice continues.
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